‘Police pressured me to change my statement’

For the past 15 years, Vimla Maurya, 45, had been living virtually under self-imposed house arrest. The daily evening walks to the local market are a thing of the past and a chill runs down her spine at the mere mention of stepping out.

Maurya fell prey to snatchers who targeted her when she was returning home after buying vegetables.

“They were hiding behind a public loo. As soon as I reached the spot, they came out and covered my face with a cloth and snatched my jewellery,” said Maurya, a mother of three.

She suffered serious injuries to her eyes and head. The incident took place just 200 metres away from her west Delhi’s Vikas Nagar home. What was even more traumatic for Maurya that when she approached the local Ranhola police station, the police asked her not to register a formal case. “They asked us to change the statement and give in writing that my wife suffered injuries after accidentally falling in a pit. We eventually succumbed to their pressure,” said Maurya’s husband Suresh Kumar, who works in a printing press.